Thursday, 25 April 2013

Leaked Video Shows Scud Launches By The 155th Brigade In Syria

On several occasions in the past there's been a number of videos claiming to show launches of various large missiles and rockets by the Syrian army. A new video has now been posted, "leaked" from the 155th Brigade, based a few kilometers northeast of Damascus, which shows multiple launches or large rockets and missiles

A couple of things point to this being Syria, and not somewhere else. First of all the Syrian flag can be seen briefly at two points in the video

At this point in the video the soldiers chant something that roughly translates to "with soul, with blood, we sacrifice ourselves to you Bashar", a slogan originating from well before the start of the conflict. This then begs the question of whether or not the video was filmed before the conflict, especially as the clothes and whether seems to put this during a warmer period of the year, not the winter months. The single clue seems to be at 3:07, when soldiers in the background use the word "thawra", which means revolution. Four people have told me this word was used, with two people telling me the soldiers say how shouting Allahu Akbar during the launch made them sounds like rebels. This is the only evidence I've come across to date it during the conflict, so if anyone else spots anything in the video that dates it that would be a great help.

Update April 25th - Here's the best translation so far of what's said via @freeCritic2000
Soldier 1 - Allahu Akbar
Soldier 2 - Don't bother with Allahu Akbar otherwise I feel like I'm in the revolution. Like in Horan.
Soldier 1 - Shut up, the other day I nearly lost my voice due to the times I shouted Allahu Akbar.

Next let's take a look at the weapons shown in the video. At the beginning of the video we see the launch of two missiles, both from a vertical position, and with a distinct orange flame at the start of the launch

Although the missiles cannot be seen clearly, the vertical position and the orange flame are both indications that these are either Scud missiles launches, or launches of missiles based off Scud missiles, such as the North Korean Rodong-1 missile. Both Soviet era Scud missiles, and North Korean Rodong-1 missiles are reported to be in service with the Syrian military.

These may be locally produced versions of Iranian rocket systems, such as the Fateh-110, or Zelzal-2 or 3, but there isn't enough reference material publicly available to confirm this, so if anyone has a good quality image of the Syrian versions of those systems, let me know.

Update April 25th 2013 I believe this footage actually might have been filmed at a test conducted in July 2012 by the Syrian military, and covered on Syrian State TV

The footage in the above video seems to match some of what's shown in the "leaked" video, and the conversation of the two soldiers about the rebels and Horan would make sense in this context. Another reader has told me that at 6:40 they talk about "projects", which in the Syrian military refers to war-games, so it seems extremely likely this is the July 2012 test.